On the sea by Beach House from the new album In Bloom. I wish I could post every song from this gloriously haunting and beautiful album.
Ithaka was the island home of the legendary Greek hero, Odysseus. After his involvement in the Trojan War, Odysseus spent ten years wandering. During those ten years he had adventures, underwent numerous tests of his courage and arrived home a different person. Constantine P. Cavafy wrote a poem about Odysseus' experience, celebrating the joy of the journey. Cavafy's poem has always been important to me and has guided me as I, too, adventure.
As you set out for Ithaka
hope your road is a long one,
full of adventure, full of discovery.
***
May there be many summer mornings when,
with what pleasure, what joy,
you enter harbors you're seeing for the first time;
may you stop at Phoenician trading stations
to buy fine things,
mother of pearl and coral, amber and ebony.
sensual perfume of every kind-
as many sensual perfumes as you can;
and may you visit many Egyptian cities
to learn and go on learning from their scholars.
***
ithaka is always on my mind. i have eternal wanderlust. as such, i travel a lot. and i love to share my stories about my experiences. some may be helpful, others entertaining, hopefully none are boring. when i travel, i like to get to know the place and the people (and the food!). i rarely have checklists of things to do and don’t overplan much. information is good but so is getting lost in a new place and trying to find your way out.
i am not trying to see everything. rather, i am trying to really get to know the places i visit. so, i usually hit the favorites on more than one occasion. or, i find an excuse to live there for a long or short time. the following places will get mentioned at some point, some more than others:
usa (chicago, cleveland, nyc, LA, new orleans, sf)
greece (athens, islands, northern greece, arcadia)
japan (yokohama, tokyo, hokkaido, osaka, hiroshima, okinawa, kamakura, kyoto)
argentina (buenos aires)
england (london, countryside)
italy (florence/fiesole/tuscany, venice/verona, rome, amalfi coast)
france (paris, giverny)
mexico (yucatan)
canada (toronto)
netherlands (amsterdam)
sri lanka (colombo, beaches, kandy)
india (mumbai)
scotland (edinborough)
china (beijing, xian, shanghai)
korea (seoul)
recently, my stories have become more about everyday life. our journey necessarily involves such experiences that inform who we are for better or worse. acknowledging these experiences and writing through them has helped me and i hope they are as equally interesting as posts about treks around the world.
Enjoy!
best,
Angela Trakas
angelatrakas@gmail.com
11 months ago
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| Notes: 1076
3 years ago
in no particular order:
laughing, dusk, riding bicycle downhill, sailing in greece, the tokyo boys, finding the best tokyo dance party with the tokyo boys, eating the best ramen in tokyo after nights of dancing with the tokyo boys, glitter, fig gelato, walking the dog, the dog, drinking wine on the hill of sacre coeur into the wee hours of the night; fresh bread, fresh butter, thyme honey on a perfect morning in greece; kamakura, daibutsu, san telmo flea markets, lawschool dinner parties, highrise apartments with balconies, hydrangeas as big as a full moon, full moons, adventure, burlesque dance parties, iwamura manabu, tadao ando gallery in art institute, travelling by train, scrabble, cooking with friends, drinking champagne with Honor, Honor, yoga at 8limbs with emily and rose, bonfires, toasted marshmallows, perfect cappuccino before 12, drawing in fiesole, being surprised by art, halvah farsalon, gournopoula, mom’s pizza, being seranaded with SMAP songs by my students, street food in Seoul, 48 xenocratou, old friends, new friends, the opportunity of new friends, swimming, the secret tea house in yokohama’s chinatown, reflexology, japanese riverside bbqs, humour, soft voices, strong arms, smart men, persimmons, peggy guggenheim, amsterdam, family dinners, cat power, japanese fiction, avec, real tofu, every new day, kakigori with elizabeth, portobello market, nottinghill arts center, long walks with good friends, ohio camping trips, college year in athens, making jewelry, hokkaido, going to the beach, exploring, neighborhoods, crete, positano, pompei, lemonade at pompei, picking cherries, staying up all night with a good book, warmth, connections, brining people together, freedom, patience, endearing people, sweetness, sweet and savory, cooking, macrobiotics, slowfood, food culture, nature, horizons, the endless blue sky, trees blowing in the wind, fall leaves, snow and hot cocoa, warmth, wild ideas, inspirational friends, community.
3 years ago
| Notes: 11
